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Anybody who's thought about it for two seconds knows we don't have a taxing problem  we have a spending problem.

We borrow about 42 cents on every dollar we spend, and under President Obama we've been spending more than $1 trillion dollars a year we don't have. That's where the borrowing comes in.

Yet almost all the talk we get from the president and from his stenographers in the media is about taxes. The wealthiest Americans need to pay their "fair share." As Meghan Clyne put it in a Wall Street Journal column, "If the U.S. Treasury received a dollar every time President Obama demanded that the rich pay their 'fair share' to eliminate our deficits, the problem might take care of itself."

If the government doesn't get spending under control  and by that I don't mean cutting the rate of increases, but actually cutting spending  the next stop on the Crazy Train we're all riding will be downtown Athens.

Yet this president doesn't have any interest in cutting spending  except, of course, for wars that we won't be fighting anyway and for the military in general. And he's getting away with his recklessness because the low-information voters, as Rush Limbaugh calls them, buy into just about anything he says  mainly because his most loyal base  the so-called mainstream media  dutifully repeat whatever he says.

What really gets me, though, is how clumsy the Republicans are. For a bunch of politicians they really stink at politics.

First, they need to pick one person to speak for the group. Right now, that person pretty much is House Speaker John Boehner. I can live with that, but just between you and me, I'd prefer someone with a little charisma taking on a president who has very little ability but a ton of charisma  at least as far as the low-information voter is concerned.

Then the GOP front man (or woman) needs to make the Republican case in language that even those low-information voters  "clueless" is the less diplomatic way to describe them  can understand. Here's what he or she might say:

"If we continue spending money we don't have, before you can say The Great Depression we will be in one, except this one will be worse than the first one.

"When interest rates go up  and they inevitably will  we will spend every penny we take in on paying off our debt. Every. Single. Penny.

"That means we won't have any money for the Army, the Navy, the Air Force or the Marines. We won't have any money for the FBI. No money for interstate highways or national parks. No money for anything except paying off the Chinese and everyone else who loaned us money.

"And this president either doesn't get it or doesn't want to get it. Since he doesn't understand anything about growing the economy, he's happy just to "spread the wealth around," as he told Joe the Plumber. Except there won't be any wealth to spread around.

"And there's something else he wants to do: make government bigger. He will never cut spending in any serious way. He will never make a move to reform entitlements. He thinks government is the answer to everything.

"We Republicans tried to compromise. We agreed to more than $800 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years. We thought the president's plan was to cut $3 in spending for every $1 in new taxes. We compromised. He reneged.

"And all he can talk about is making the rich pay their "fair share." Forget about raising taxes on the top 1 or 2 percent by a few percentage points. If we took 100 percent of everything they've got, it wouldn't begin to get us out of the hole we're in. That's how irresponsible both Democrats and Republicans have been for a very long time.

"The only way out is to cut spending and then cut some more. This president won't do it. He's counting on you  the American people  not to understand how serious this problem is.

"Like everything else that happens here in Washington, this looks like just one more ugly, partisan political argument. This time it isn't. This time it's is about saving America."

Then the GOP has to make the point  one I've written about in this space before  that they have seen the polls and they know they will take the blame for whatever goes wrong. They know that the president will be seen as the Great Compromiser while they will be seen as obstructionists who care only about people with yachts. But under no circumstances, they need to say, will Republicans sell out the American people, no matter how much it may cost them politically.

Barack Obama has won two presidential elections with more than 50 percent of the vote. The last Democrat to do that was Franklin Roosevelt. So, my conservative friends, let's not pretend that Mr. Obama doesn't possess something the American people like. That's how he got re-elected despite chronically high unemployment and chronically low economic growth.

He has blamed President Bush for the economic mess he inherited. And he got away with it. And he will blame Republicans in general if we slide into another recession, or even if the economy "merely" stagnates in his second term. Memo to GOP: Don't let him get away with it any longer. Make him own the mess he's created.

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JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.

He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.

Previously:

•12/24/12: GOP In More Trouble Than They Probably Know
•12/18/12: Taking on Guns Will Be the Easy Part
•12/17/12: When Obama's Words Mean Nothing
•12/10/12: Do You Believe in Magic?
•12/04/12: Obama and the Dolts Deserve Each Other
•11/27/12: When the Ends Justify the Meanness
•11/20/12: Our Mesmerizer-in-Chief
•11/19/12: This Pretty Much Sums It Up . . .
•11/12/12: Santa Claus and the GOP Civil War
•11/07/12: Obama Wins . . . and Loses
•11/01/12: Out on a Limb, Predicting A Big Victory For . . .
•11/01/12: Should Mitt Talk to Bill?
•10/30/12: Really Dumb Conservatives . . .
•10/23/12: Debate #3: How Much Does Foreign Policy Matter If You Can't Find a Job?
•10/22/12: When Conservatives Are As Dopey as Liberals . . .
•10/19/12: Journalists' Who Don't Even Try to Hide Their Bias
•10/17/12: Obama Stopped the Bleeding --- But Was That Enough to Change the Momentum?
•10/15/12: No Winner in the Debate --- But Maybe a Loser
•10/08/12: The October Surprise
•10/04/12: Civil War in the GOP Could Go Nuclear on Nov 7
•10/01/12: Even If He Wins, Obama Will Lose
•09/27/12: Obama Picks Up a Crucial Demographic
•09/26/12: If Obama Thinks He Inherited a Mess Four Years Ago . . .
•09/24/12: A Good Way to Kill Free Speech
•08/30/12: Facts I Have Uncovered About the Real Mitt Romney
•08/23/12: Hope and Change, R.I.P.s
•08/16/12: Who's Smarter: Joe Biden or Yogi Berra?
•08/13/12: His Silence Makes Him Complicit
•08/07/12: Did You Know that Harry Reid Got Rich Pimping Out HOs?
•08/02/12: Like Birds on a Telephone Wire
•07/30/12: What Me Worry? YES!
•07/26/27: The Mystery Continues --- A Tale of Two Polls
•07/16/27: We've Set a Low Bar for 'Courage'
•07/11/27: Will Class Warfare Work?
•07/09/27: A Brave New World
•07/02/27: Now the Fun Really Starts
•06/19/27: You Can't Make This Stuff Up . . .
•06/19/12: I Would Have Fired Him Before He Got Back to the Office
•06/12/12: Time to Crush the Myth about Gender Pay Inequality
•06/06/12: The Desperate Campaign of Barack Obama
•06/01/12: Hey Fatso! Listen Up!
•05/25/12: Going After the Stupid Vote
•05/22/12: The X Factor(s)!
•05/15/12: Obama Has a Halo; Newsweek Has No Shame
•05/10/12: Authoritarians on Campus
•05/08/12: Obama's Path to Victory: Divide and Conquer
•05/01/12: President Cool Meets Reality
•04/25/12: Why Media Bias Matters
•04/17/12: NYT: At It Again
•04/13/12: Kissing up to the Rev. Al
•04/10/12: This Just In: War Breaks Out --- Thank You, Lord
•04/03/12: In Cold Blood?
•03/27/12: Trayvon Martin and Media Hypocrisy
•03/26/12: Time to Go, Rick
•03/22/12: Obama's Mantra: Don't Blame Me
•03/19/12: The U.N. Human Rights Council --- and other Jokes
•03/13/12: Bias in the News: Blame it on Their Zip Code
•03/06/12: Thank Heaven for Rich People --- a Second Look
•02/29/12: Some Free Advice for the Republican Field
•02/28/12: Do We Have a Right to Lie?
•02/16/12: Can Obama Win Re-Election by Promising Free Stuff?
•02/06/12: The 5 Stages of Mitt
•02/02/12: Florida Has Spoken; Cue the Fat Lady
•01/30/12: The Other Global Warming Story
•01/26/12: They See Racists Everywhere . . .
•01/24/12: The Arrogant and Clueless Mainstream Media
•01/23/12: Gingrich Wins SC --- Media Help Big Time
•01/18/12: A New Entry for 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America
•01/12/12: The Dream Ticket Could Be a Conservative Nightmare
•01/11/12: Now 'Anybody But Romney' Has a Name
•12/30/11: I Have a Confession to Make . . .
•12/27/11: Know When to Hold 'em and Know When to Fold 'em
•12/20/11: NBC News, the KKK and the State of Journalism
•12/19/11: Mitt and Newt: Two Rich Guys Arguing Over Money
•12/13/11: Donald Trump Is the Greatest; Just Ask Him
•12/12/11: Rob Peter to Pay Paul: Bad Economics! Good Politics?
•12/07/11: Yeah . . . and Fish Don't Know They're Wet, Either
•12/06/11: Did the Media Play Fair with Herman Cain?
•12/05/11: Obama to Blue-Collar America: Adios!
•11/29/11: We Can Stop the Crazy Train Before It Gets to Greece
•11/22/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/15/11: The Dumbest Media Question I've Ever Heard
•11/09/11: What If Herman Cain Did It?
•11/08/11: What If Herman Cain Were a Lib?
•11/02/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/01/11: We're Approaching the Tipping Point
•10/25/11: A Response to the Angry Purists
•10/18/11: They're Waiting for Reagan to Hit the Campaign Trail
•10/12/11: Read This!!! --- But Only If You Have Nothing Better To Do
•10/04/11: Can Obama Win Re-Election?
•09/27/11: It's NOT the Economy Stupid, It's Theology
•09/20/11: Bad News on the Doorstep
•09/09/11: Hypocrisy!
•09/06/11: Back to the Future
•08/24/11: Hillary vs. Obama in 2012? It'll Never Happen --- I Don't Think
•08/22/11: Warning: Conservatives May Be Harmful to Your Mental Health
•08/17/11: Warren Buffett, Coddled Billionaire
•08/11/11: Too Much Balance in the Media?
•08/04/11: All Aboard the Crazy Train
•08/01/11: Liberal Hate Speech
•07/25/11: With All Due Respect, Go Fly a Kite
•07/20/11: Who Is A Natural Born Citizen?
•07/18/11: Guess Who's Not Paying Their Fair Share
•07/12/11: Against More Taxes? You May Be a Terrorist!
•07/11/11: Casey Anthony: The TV Show
•07/06/11: Standards and Double Standards at MSNBC
•06/29/11: Is Jon Stewart A Racist?
•06/21/11: Let's Play the Race Card --- Just for Fun Of Course
•06/20/11: Sarah Palin and Weiner's Weiner
•06/03/11: Memo to GOP: Turn Mr. Obama into Mr. Yesterday
•05/20/11: I Get Letters From People Who Should Be Locked Up
•05/09/11: Is Torture Ever Justified?•05/02/11: The Promiscuous Use of the R Word•04/19/11: The Man Behind the Million Dollar Smile•04/12/11: What's the Difference Between Libs in Politics and Libs in the Media?•04/08/11: An Idea Whose Time Has Come  and Gone•03/28/11: The Pundits Are Driving Me Crazy --- And You Thought Qadaffi Is Nuts•03/14/11: No Liberal Bias at NPR  Just Ask NPR•03/10/11: The media's frustration •03/01/11: Progressives Lost in Time . . .•02/23/11: The Lamestreams Strike Again --- This Time in Madison•02/03/11: You MUST Own a Gun --- Or Else!•01/20/11: It Was Horrible, I tell you … HORRIBLE!•01/11/11: Here We Go Again . . .•01/06/11: You Go, Oprah•12/28/10: A Year-Ender --- The MSM and Obama's Fall from Grace
•12/14/10: Thank Heaven for Rich People